2008 Woodie Awards
A Webster Gorlok in Japan Part 3
By: David Umfleet
Issue date: 10/5/06 Section: Sports
In part 2, the writer, a Webster baseball player who coached a USA Little League team during a summer tournament in Japan, portrayed the shock his team suffered after what appeared to be an early loss. Now, in part 3, team USA gets a second chance.
After a team meeting, we all sat down to bask in our sorrow and eat lunch. A half- hour passed and no one said a word. I stood up and walked over to Head Coach Brian Garner and his son, Assistant Coach Kurt Garner. They were still distraught, but we had another game to focus on. As we were deciding on our starting pitcher, the president of the tournament walked up to us. These were his exact words: "Team USA, win!"
We said no, and proceeded to tell him how bad we lost.
"No, Team USA win. Japan forfeit," the Japanese president tried to convince us.
Again we said no, that we had just played.
"No, wrong team. USA win. Japan forfeit," he said.
The three of us looked at one another confused and asked if he was sure. He said yes, and we didn't ask any more questions. We had no idea what happened, but somehow we had been given a second chance.
Trying to hide our excitement, we called the team together. Some of them still had tears in their eyes. We told them to take a deep breath, because they had no idea how lucky they were. They stared at us searching for the answer. Brian told them what the Japanese president had told us. The team waited for the punch line, but there wasn't one. One by one, they jumped into our arms screaming and shouting. The collective despair instantly turned into a united celebration.
We left the fifth-place game behind along with the defeat, and headed home. With one more win, we would be playing for the gold medal.
Learning from our mistake and suffering pounding headaches from the previous night, Kurt and I decided the celebrating would have to wait another day. We calmly took our seats at the dinner table with our host family and talked about our days. The grandmother told stories of meeting New York Yankees outfielder Hideki Matsui. Naoki had rapper Eminem playing in the background. I found that oddly settling. I think it was sort of a link to home for me. Mamma-san was doing what she always did, trying to force-feed Kurt and me. Yoshi was trying to convince us to have a drink with him. We graciously declined.
After a team meeting, we all sat down to bask in our sorrow and eat lunch. A half- hour passed and no one said a word. I stood up and walked over to Head Coach Brian Garner and his son, Assistant Coach Kurt Garner. They were still distraught, but we had another game to focus on. As we were deciding on our starting pitcher, the president of the tournament walked up to us. These were his exact words: "Team USA, win!"
We said no, and proceeded to tell him how bad we lost.
"No, Team USA win. Japan forfeit," the Japanese president tried to convince us.
Again we said no, that we had just played.
"No, wrong team. USA win. Japan forfeit," he said.
The three of us looked at one another confused and asked if he was sure. He said yes, and we didn't ask any more questions. We had no idea what happened, but somehow we had been given a second chance.
Trying to hide our excitement, we called the team together. Some of them still had tears in their eyes. We told them to take a deep breath, because they had no idea how lucky they were. They stared at us searching for the answer. Brian told them what the Japanese president had told us. The team waited for the punch line, but there wasn't one. One by one, they jumped into our arms screaming and shouting. The collective despair instantly turned into a united celebration.
We left the fifth-place game behind along with the defeat, and headed home. With one more win, we would be playing for the gold medal.
Learning from our mistake and suffering pounding headaches from the previous night, Kurt and I decided the celebrating would have to wait another day. We calmly took our seats at the dinner table with our host family and talked about our days. The grandmother told stories of meeting New York Yankees outfielder Hideki Matsui. Naoki had rapper Eminem playing in the background. I found that oddly settling. I think it was sort of a link to home for me. Mamma-san was doing what she always did, trying to force-feed Kurt and me. Yoshi was trying to convince us to have a drink with him. We graciously declined.
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